Motorists travelling along Hendrik Potgieter Road are becoming more and more frustrated at the total lawlessness of users of this road. So through you, the Northsider, we would like to send an open letter to Minister Bheki Cele, Mayor Herman Mashaba, and Wayne Minnaar of the JMPD.
We challenge the above three people to travel this road three times; once in peak traffic in the morning, again at around lunchtime and then in the afternoon peak traffic. And please, no ‘Blue Light Brigades’. We drive that road five days a week, without a Blue Light Brigade. What are you so scared of that you can’t just drive down a road and absorb the lawlessness taking place? Simply drive along this road in a unmarked car and see first-hand what the West Rand motorist has to put up with on a daily basis.
Here are some examples:
1) Taxis, trucks and some ordinary motorists driving in the yellow lanes because they can’t be bothered to wait in the traffic like normal people do.
2) Taxis driving on the wrong side of the road.
3) Taxis making U-turns in the major intersections
4) One of the biggest problems, and probably the most disruptive issue, is that the slip road out of Makro has been taken over by the taxis. At lunchtime, up to forty taxis park on this slip road and kerb, which means that motorists coming out of Makro have to put themselves at risk by going around the taxis and forcing their way into the stream of traffic. This is extremely dangerous.
Often at lunchtime or afternoon teatime, you can see members of the police and the JMPD sitting among the taxi drivers having lunch or tea. That’s right, joining the taxi drivers for lunch or tea, and not enforcing the law.
We have noticed a large number of flare-ups in the traffic which could end in violence – on YOUR watch – and we can assure you that something is going to snap. Motorists will start retaliating against the unacceptable lawlessness on our roads in the country.
We are not sure if the three men mentioned above are scared of the taxi associations or the other offenders, but something has to be done.
